692 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



" After a season the royal body returned, and her son Menelech, the 

 result of her visit to the greatest potentate of the age, was born, and 

 in due time transmitted to his august sire. The young prince was 

 duly instructed in all the mysteries of Jewish law and science, and 

 being anointed king, under the name of David, he was returned to his 

 own land of Ethiopia, escorted by a large suit of the nobles of Israel, 

 and a band of her most learned elders, under the direction of Ascarias, 

 the son of Tradok, the High Priest. 



" The gates of the temple of Jerusalem were left unguarded, and the 

 doors miraculously opened, in order that the holy ark and the tables of the 

 Law might without difficulty be stolen and carried away. The journey 

 was prosperously performed, and the Queen Mother, on resigning the 

 reins of authority to her son, caused a solemn obligation to be sworn 

 by all, that henceforward no female should hold sway in the land, 

 and that none but the issue of David should sit upon the throne of 

 Ethiopia." 



Although this tradition may in itself be considered inconsistent and 

 improbable, the firm belief in the origin thus traced, will in a great 

 measure account for the general inclination and consent to receive 

 Jewish rites and practices, as they were in process of time presented. 



The fable of Queen Maqueda was in all probability the invention of 

 fugitive Jews, who after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor 

 Titus, emigrated to Ethiopia by way of the Red Sea, who disseminated 

 the tradition with the design of obtaining the desired permission to 

 settle in the country, and whose descendants, under the name of Fala- 

 shas, are still extant among the mountains of Simien and Lasta. 



The real queen of Sheba or Saba, known to the Arabs under the 

 title of Belkis or Nicanta, reigned over a portion of Arabia Felix. Want 

 of geographical information and inquiry perpetuated the error of anti- 

 quity, which extended Ethiopia to Arabia ; and the Sabacans and Home- 

 rites, who inhabited the Southern portion of the land, are frequently 

 confounded with the swarthier sons of Africa. 



But the queen of the South, who came to hear the wisdom of Solo- 

 mon, brought along with her the produce of her own country; and 

 camels and spices, gold and precious stones, pertains not unto Ethiopia. 

 The first Christian Missionary found the inhabitants of Abyssinia idola- 

 ters and worshippers of the great serpent Arwe ; whereas, according to 



